Looking to make my own vacuum table....

[gearsoup]

I am looking to make a small (12"x12") vacuum table. I am going to be cutting mainly polycarbonate (plexiglass). Anyone have good sources on what I should be reading to properly construct one? I've seen vaccum pumps in Mcmaster-Carr, but the $400 price tag kinda concerns me. Being a diy-er, I was hoping to make the entire thing for less that that.... I've seen people use shop-vacs in thier setup, but I think that's on the other end of the scale, and I'd like something a bit nicer than that.

The table will be made out of aluminum plate, many many holes, and I will have a small (3/32") replaceable sacrificial top on it. This will probably be out of pvc sheet or something like that.

So, basically looking for tips and advice.

[ssutton]

Take a look at central vacuum pump motors. I have 1 on my 4' X 4' table and it hold sheet metal and polycarbonate down like nails. ShotBot folks use this type of hold down regularly. The only concern about your setup with just 1 square ft is that your surface area is really small for a low draw vacuum. On my table anything over 3 square ft is held down firmly and I can make virtually any cut to it. At 1 square ft and am not so sure? You may need something more along the lines of a real vacuum pump? I cheap test would be to try a shop vac, if that works then a central vac motor would is stronger than that.

Scott

[RomanLini]

You can get a small vacuum pump on ebay (sold for regassing refridgerators etc) for around $100 that will be small, and fairly quiet and produce about -10 PSI with no problems.

That will give 1440 punds of hold down force on a 12" square plate, provided it doesn't leak.

There is a European company (German?) that makes a thin fine rubbery mesh you put under your cutting job (between job and vacuum table). It gets very sticky under vacuum and will hold even tiny parts while you cut all the way around them. The video is quite impressive! Sorry I can't remeber the product or company name.

[ger21]

Look here. They also sell inexpensive pumps.
Vacuum Clamping (Vacuum Hold-Down Jig)

[gearsoup]

Wow, all nice stuff there ger21. Don't know why any of my searches never turned up joewoodworker.com
That site has pretty much all I need to get going on my design, and it looks like he sells all the items needed.

[wcarrothers1]

I build one of his pumps. Is is great for small work. If you entend on cutting or drilling (ie breaking the seal) on anything with that setup while it's being milled the pump will not keep up though..

That On/Off vacumen peddle thing they sell is a KILLER cool item and I'd recomend that very high. Their used / reworked pumps work well and it is a cool design.

For making a small vac table to hold spacific size items like engraving material or something like that, where you run 1 then pull it off and put the next blank down is is a very cool setup with the vac on off peddle.

b./

[wcarrothers1]

There was I think a canadian company that sold pump motors for around 400 bucks I'm thinking? But I can't remember the name off hand.


b